


From the Cradle to the Grave

by shadowdx118



Category: 999: Nine Hours Nine Persons Nine Doors - Fandom, Zero Escape (Video Games)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-25
Updated: 2016-06-21
Packaged: 2018-06-10 12:10:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 5
Words: 16,338
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6955972
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shadowdx118/pseuds/shadowdx118
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Before Akane Kurashiki recreated the First Nonary Game, before Gentarou Hongou forced 18 children to play the Nonary Game, before Cradle Pharmaceutical created Soporil, Hongou himself was a participant in Lord Gordain’s Nonary Games. These games were not for the research of morphogenetic fields, or even to save a life. These games were designed for the entertainment of millionaires who thought that such torturous trials made for the best show.</p><p>This is the story of how Gentarou Hongou, the man many would come to know as “Ace” won Gordain’s final Nonary Game.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Quinque

_“Well then, I’d better introduce myself. I am–”_

_“We all know. Gordain’s successor, and 【Zero】. We all are quite familiar with this speech. And I assume we shall follow as we have done in the past, and bet on our relatives? Any objections? No? Good.”_

_“I remember a time when these games used to be civilized, and the spectators respected the host.”_

_“Yes, yes, we all do, but we have no time for reminiscence now, Zero. They’re waking up.”_

§

He rolls over in his sleep again.

“I-I’m sorry… I swear I got those forms in. I… wait, you’re not…?  Gah!” He sits up in a cold sweat only to nail his forehead on something hard.  “Ow!”

He recoils in pain and rolls to his left. The ground beneath him suddenly vanishes.  “Son of a–!” He falls several feet to hit the cold metal surface below.

“Ow, ow, ow… what was…” He looks up to see that he fell from the top of a bunk. “What… where am I? This… oh, no, no, no, no, don’t tell me I’m in jail… oh god no…” He scrambles to his feet and surveys the room.  “No… that window… this… this isn’t jail… is this… a ship?” He jams his hands into his pockets. His left hand catches something, like a folded piece of paper.

“Hello, what’s this?” He pulls it out and reads over it.

_Consider yourself lucky._

_You have been chosen to participate in the 【Nonary Game】 as participant number five. To escape this ship with your life, you must understand the concept of digital roots. Simply add the digits of a number; should the sum be more than one digit, repeat the process until there is only one digit. That one digit is the digital root._

_– Zero_

“I welcome you.” A speaker suddenly crackles to life. “Yes, welcome, lucky participants, all nine of you, to the Nonary Game. I would love to explain to you the rules, but our time together is short. If I may, please turn your attention to your newest, ah, accessory adorning your left wrist.” 

He looks at his left wrist. There, as the voice mentioned, is the so-called accessory: a bulky contraption that loosely resembled a watch.  But on its face was not the time but a 【5】.

“Most of you might be wondering what this lovely contraption is. It is your key to freedom yet also your judge, jury, and executioner. Now, please press both buttons simultaneously.”

He does as the voice says and upon the face, instead of a 【5】, a paused timer glares back at him in bright LED blue. 18 minutes? 18 hours?

“You see that timer? You have 18 minutes to escape this room.  If not, well… let’s just say your bracelets pack a _toxic_ surprise.  But fret not, there is a solution. Seek a way out. I wish you all the best of luck.”

The speaker crackles for a moment and then fell silent.

“This can’t be happening… oh please let this all be some sort of nightmare. Okay, okay, let’s just… slow down a moment, Ace, and… do a reality check, yeah…”

He takes a breath and runs down a list mentally. “I am Gentarou Hongou, or Hongou Gentarou–depending which country I’m in. I’m 27 years old and… I still need to pay the landlord for this month…” He is about to continue when something in his mind starts screaming at him.

“Hurry up! Or do you want to find out what happens when that timer hits zero? Like it or not, this is real.”

He didn’t need to be told twice. He quickly spurs into action and begins to frantically search the room. He runs over to what looks to be a stove and checks the kettle on top for anything. Inside is a blue key, so he immediately runs back over to the door and tries to find a keyhole, but there isn’t anything he could insert the key into.  He gives up quickly and instead turns back to search the room. Something to his left catches his eye.  The wall is covered by something. _That’s not right…_ With little hesitation he runs over and rips off the cover. Beneath is a mirror, but he pays it no mind and grabs the red key taped to its surface. _Yeah, no way I’m looking in the mirror._ He pockets the key and turns his attention to the beds. He frantically tears off the pathetic excuses for covers. Something clatters behind him. It was a small pocket knife. Ace doesn’t even hesitate and quickly pockets it as well. His search produces nothing more. He runs over to the window, which remains bolted shut.

“Of course…” he mutters.

Once again, an object to his left catches his eye. Two objects, in fact. One is a strange slip of paper; the other, a photo. He grabs both and inspects the photo. The back is bolted on. Ace pulls out the knife and uses the tip to carefully unscrew the back. Moments later, he gets the last screw off and some sort of weird code is on the back. Or maybe… he pulls out another slip he found. A cipher! He quickly figures out the red code is 【7485】, and the blue as 【0263】. But what were they for? He goes to lean back on a wall, but it isn’t a wall; it is a curtain. He falls backwards into some sort of alcove.

“Ow…” He struggles to his feet. “That… was not a wall. And what did I land on?” Underneath of him is a red briefcase. “Oh, wait…” He pulls out the red key and tries to unlock it, but nothing happens. “No… oh, that code! Ha! I’m a genius!” He quickly inputs the red code into the case’s number lock and twists the key.  Inside are three cards, labeled 【1】, 【2】, and 【3】. Ace runs over to the door and scans one card, then pulls the lever.  The device sounds off an error.  He tries the other two cards, the 【2】 and the 【3】, in hopes of abiding by the digital root thing, but that also yields no result.

“Dammit, now what?” He surveys the room again and notices that on the bunk opposite the one that he woke up on had a blue briefcase. Once again he rabidly inputs the blue code and inserts the key. The case yields three more cards: 【6】, 【7】, and 【8】. Ace runs the number rapidly in his mind and gets a solution of 6, 7, and 1 to yield a digital root of 【5】. If this didn’t work, he might as well accept the fact that this guy who trapped him here didn’t plan on letting him escape. He half slams the cards on the reader and yanks the lever down hard. Instead of an error, the card reader accepts it and Ace could hear the door unlock. He throws all of his weight on the door and stumbles out. He slumps up against the wall; what adrenaline had been fueling his mad search had left him and he felt dead exhausted. He lifts his left arm up and checks the time. It stopped at 00:05. If his life wasn’t in danger, he would have laughed. He would’ve just stayed there for a long time if someone hadn’t burst out of the door next to the one he had exited and tripped over him.

“God dammit! What the hell are you doing?!” Despite the intense annoyance echoing in the voice, Ace could tell that the young woman’s voice wavered and even bordered on timid. “Didn’t you read the note? We’re supposed to go to the central staircase, B Deck, n-now hurry, or do you want to die?”

Ace pulls himself off the ground and follows behind her as quickly as she can.

“Wait, what do you mean by ‘didn’t you read the note’?” he calls after her.  “More importantly, where are we?”

“Old luxury cruise liner.” The timidness in her voice suddenly vanishes as she replies. “As for your first, rather stupid question, there was a back.”

“No, I mean which deck.” He didn’t feel like responding to the fact there was a back. No way he was admitting defeat to her.

“D Deck.”

“How do you know that?”

“Seriously, how are you even alive? Can’t you read? It was on a sign.”

“I’m really starting to hate you.” He grumbles.

“Yeah, yeah, no time to talk, we gotta to find our way up. Got any ideas?” She skids to a stop. Ace unfortunately doesn’t stop in time and he crashes into her. They both end up tumbling to the ground.

“Umm… oops?” He gives her an awkward smile.

“Get off me, you weirdo!” She pushes him off of her.

“Hey!” A new voice yells to them. “Lovebirds! Get off your asses. We need to get going. NOW! You guys 【4】 and 【5】, right?”

“Yeah.” He and the woman answer simultaneously and immediately glare at each other.

“Good. That’s all nine of us. Now come on!”

The young woman gets off Ace and follows the other guy. Ace scrambles to his feet and runs past her.

“Yeah! You go run to your death, asshole!” She calls after him.

He pays her no mind and keeps running. He looks back with a smirk, but the woman had already caught up.  But that apparently isn’t good enough for her.  She jumps to the right and pushes off the wall, passing Ace in a single leap.

“Try to keep up!” She returns his smirk and runs ahead.

“Cheater…” he grumbles.

Soon they were scaling a grand staircase, and on the B Deck, six other individuals were waiting for them. One of them steps forward. He gives some sort of speech about how they should take role for the nine players and asks for everyone to call off their numbers.

Everyone just complies and calls off in order, and eventually the young woman he had just raced against calls out her number:

“Four.” Her voice is quiet and shy; not at all what she had sounded like before when talking–well, bickering–with Ace. If he hadn’t seen her say it herself, he would’ve thought she was someone else.

“Where’s Five?” someone asks, breaking his train of thought.

“Sorry, I’m participant five.” Guess he spaced out for longer than he thought.

The rest of the group finishes the role call.

“Excellent.” The guy with the number one bracelet steps forward.

No sooner did he speak did the speaker once again crackle to life.

“Excellent is quite right.” All of them began to look around to find the exact source of the voice. “Allow me to formally welcome you all, from the bottom of my heart, to this, my vessel.”

Eventually the group finds the source and locks their gazes upon a speaker, set in the ceiling.

“Hey! Asshole!” Bracelet Nine yells at the speaker. “The hell’re you hiding?! Lemme see your face so I can introduce my fist to it!”

The man behind the speaker pays Nine no mind.

“I am Zero, the captain of this ship. I am also the person who invited you here. I mean, for each one of you to participate in a game, the 【Nonary Game】, to be precise. It is a game where you will put your life on the line.  Your objective is simple.  Seek a way out.  Seek a door that carries a 【9】. The rules are simple: all who enter must contribute. No more than five and no less than three may enter. Your bracelets hold the key to your escape. Place your hand on the scanner and pull the lever once you have the desired team. Should the sum of your bracelet numbers’ digital root match the number emblazoned upon the door, it shall open, and shall remain open for only 9 seconds. Once you enter a numbered door, you have 81 seconds to find the deactivation device. Scan your bracelets as you have with the activation device. Then the room timer starts, just like the one in the rooms you each awoke in. However, should someone break the rules, then said transgressor or transgressors shall be penalized, gravely. Lastly, on April 14th, 1912, the famous ocean liner Titanic crashed into an iceberg.  After remaining afloat for 2 hours and 40 minutes, it sank beneath the waters of the North Atlantic. I am a fair and generous host, and will grant you all more time to escape.  【Nine hours】.  No more, no less. Should any of you fail to escape within nine hours, you are proclaimed the losers of the Nonary Game. I wish you all the best of luck.” The speaker falls silent.

A sense of doom and despair fell over the group. Behind them, a clock rings out. Once… twice… three times… until the ninth chime. Its tenth chime never came.

“Six o’clock…” Bracelet Three mumbles. Eight pairs of eyes suddenly lock onto him. “It’s now nine o’clock. We have nine hours, so that means we have until six o’clock to escape.”

“Then what are we waiting for?” Bracelet One calls out. He begins to explain how they have no time to lose and have to find 【Door 9】, even if it means jumping when Zero says jump. Ace didn’t really pay attention. Something about this whole 【Nonary Game】 was almost familiar to him. Almost like a memory from years in the past. Suddenly a voice interrupts his thoughts. It was One. “Hey, Two, Three, Four, and Five: you guys good with taking 【Door 5】?”

Ace nods sheepishly. The others give tacit consent. He is more concerned about trying to remember where he had heard about the Nonary Game before. 

“Excellent. Then Six, Seven, Eight, Nine, and myself shall go through 【Door 4】.” One walks over to the door. “Any objections?”

Not a single participant spoke up. Everyone moves to their assigned doors. Next to each door are what Ace assumes to be a verification device. Ace steps forward and places his hand on the surface of it. The machine beeps and a lone asterisk appears on the display that had read “Vacant” before. The other three soon follow suit. Three grabs the lever on the side and pulls. As soon as the door opened, the four of them sprung into action. As soon as they passed through the door, all of their bracelets began to beep. Their 81 seconds had begun.

“Does anyone know what the deactivation device looks like?!” Four suddenly blurts out. None of them had really given it much thought until now.

“Dammit!  We’re gonna get penalized unless we find it!”

Ace already had started to look around. Lever? Scanner? Out of the corner of his eye, he sees a device that looks strikingly similar to the device next to the door they had used to enter.

“What about that thing?” He shouts and points at the device.

“It couldn’t hurt to try!” Two runs over and slams his hand on the device, and like with the verification device, it registers Two’s bracelet, and a red asterisk appears on the display. Not a second more passes when Ace, Four, and Three also slam their hands on the device. Ace polls the lever and the countdown ceases.

Silence hung over them. The only one not petrified was Four, who had checked her bracelet for a moment and gone to inspect a door on the opposite end of the hall. Ace walks over to her and tries to see what she’s looking at. All he sees is a sign, which he unintentionally reads aloud: “【First Class Cabin】?”

Four jumps and glares at Ace. “Do you mind?” Her voice was back to its harsh tone. “I’m trying to think.”

“Well, sorry,” He returns her loathing tone. “But I was curious as to what you were looking at.”

“Well sorry, old boy, but I think it would be wiser for you to mind your own business.” She puts up an absolutely over-the-top accent on.

“That was so funny, I forgot to laugh.” His voice drips in sarcasm as he retorts, meeting her eye.

“Do you want to go there?” She drops the accent. “Because we can.”

Ace was about to respond when one of the other two participants calls to both of them, and judging by their timid tone, Ace assumes it’s Three. “Umm… guys… we have 45 minutes.”

“Right, judging by the cabin type, we should be able to split up the work into two teams. You and Two can check the furthest room, likely a bedroom. Lord Asskiss of Stubbornshire and I will check the nearest room.” Four’s eye contact never breaks with Ace’s for a single second.

“Alright, you two had better end your staring contest soon though… I don’t wanna die.” Three walks past them and enters the cabin with Two in tow.

Ace and Four glare at each other for a good several moments before Four finally turns away and enters the cabin rather impatiently. Ace follows with a smug grin.

“You’re an interesting one, I’ll give you that.” She says without facing him. She begins to search the area.  Ace does the same.

“I could say the same about you.” He tries to sound as uninterested as she is, but he’s convinced she can see right through him. “The way you hold yourself… I can’t say I’ve ever met anyone with so much contradiction. Your timid voice clearly indicates that you’re either exceptionally insecure or you’re painfully shy. I’m going to say it’s a combination of both. Your crossed arms indicate you’re being defensive, but most people read it as aggression. And your clothing choice, despite still clearly feminine, it hardly… ah, pardon my word choice, ‘showcases your assets.’ In fact, I might even go so far as to say it does the opposite. Your now impatient posture is clearly telling me to ‘put a sock in it,’ but please allow me to finish. Lastly is your shift in attitude whenever addressing me, or whenever I’m around in general. Your voice still wavers, but what I find fascinating is that you no longer have this retreated, defensive posture. Instead, you’re far more confident, likely so you won’t let my competitive nature overshadow the one you secretly harbor.” Ace never stammers once during his explanation. At some point he picks up a glass plate with what appears to a music score.

“Interesting.” Four sounds almost amused. “As for you, everything about you screams cocky bastard. Your smirk, the glint in your eye, even the way you hold yourself, all the marks of a man of extreme arrogance. But that’s only because you’re so deeply insecure with your identity and how others see you, so you put up this act of superiority; any truly confident man wouldn’t walk around with your attitude. I’m guessing you came from wealth since you’re not comfortable in that worn-out flannel shirt of yours, but you can’t afford better. Either student debt or your parents refuse to give you aid, but I say both. Now, I find it odd how you were able to surmise so much about my personality, and… and yet you dodged any mention of facial features. For most people, that is how they read everyone. Now either you couldn’t take your eyes off my “assets” or you’ve got something wrong with your brain. Correct me if I’m wrong, but you really don’t seem like the “sicko” type who stares at a woman’s breasts. You’re an arrogant bastard, but you’re not a pervert. So that leaves option B. The only disorder that I know of that causes a loss of information regarding facial features is prosopagnosia. So tell me, Five, do you have prosopagnosia or am I somehow horribly wrong?”

Ace was at a complete loss for words. “You… know what prosopagnosia is?”

“Well, yeah, I know most people don’t, but I’m not most people.”

Ace tries to think of something to say to her in response and defend himself, but what could he say? She knew his secret. He’s at her mercy now.

Four picks up another music glass plate. “I’m guessing that by your silence it means I am right. Don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone. I don’t see any benefit in spoiling that secret.”

“I don’t like being held at a disadvantage. So I appreciate that. Thanks… I think.” He lets out a sigh of relief. “So… you think this is the real Titanic?” Ace asks, walking into the bathroom, trying to change the subject.

“Man, how dumb are you? Everyone knows the Titanic sank.” She follows him into the bathroom with a vase.” Even if it was, I ain’t gonna be your Rose.” 

“What?” He turns to give her a weird look.

Four rolls her eyes and fills the vase with water from the tub.

“You’ve never seen the movie ‘Titanic’?  Jeez, what rock do you live under?” She heads back out of the bathroom and to the fireplace in the main area.

“Oh, right. Yeah, I’ve seen it.” Ace follows behind her and crosses his arms. Four dumps the contents of the vase out into the fireplace, extinguishing the fire.

“Couldn’t follow the story, right?” She asks a little more quietly. “I’m guessing movies weren’t exactly a fun childhood pastime for you, were they?”

“Are you mocking me?” He crosses his arms.

“Yes and no.” Four shrugs. “I am legitimately curious, but I think it’s great fun mocking you, Quincy.”

“Quincy? Why Quincy?”

“Your number is 【5】, correct? Quincy means ‘fifth son’, so I’m calling you Quincy, plus you look like a Quincy.”

Ace sighs, “Well, it could be worse. At least it’s better than my real name. But could you call me Ace instead?”

“Nah, you’re Quincy, and you can’t tell me otherwise. So, Quincy,” Four smiles, “mind grabbing that glass plate for me?”

“What? Why me?”

“Because the water in the tub was gross, and no way in hell I’m touching that.” She points at the fireplace.

“Get it yourself. I’m not your servant.”

Four glares at him, “Do you want us to die? Unless we solve whatever puzzle these plates go to, we’re going to die from whatever poison is in our bracelet.”

“Fine!” Ace throws his arms up in defeat. “But only because I don’t want to die. I could not possibly care any less about what happens to the rest of this sausagefest, especially you.”

“Sausagefest?”

“Yes! Sausagefest! Because… argh! You’re so infuriating!” He storms over to the fireplace and grabs the plate. “Does this please milady?”

“Yes.” She smiles, quite proud of herself. “Now, let’s go check on Two and Three.” She walks past him and goes into the other room. Ace follows behind her, still fuming.

As soon as he and Four enter the next room, Two and Three greet them.

“Oh, hey Four, hey Five, we were actually about to come get you.” Two waves them over to the piano. “We can’t seem to figure out this puzzle. We’re hitting the notes, but nothing’s happening.”

“What about these?” Ace holds out the three glass plates that Four found.

“Maybe those might just work.” Three steps out of the way. Ace walks over to the piano and aligns the four glass plates. Ace then plays the three measures on the combined plates. As soon as he hit the final note there is a click from below. Ace checks below. A piece of metal had fallen. Engraved on its surface is a set of multiple numbers.

“14383421…” He looks over at the group, who are all waiting for him to produce something. “Is there any kind of safe or something in this room?”

“Nope. We checked it from top to bottom.” Two shrugs. “Nothing. And why do you think it goes to a safe?”

“It could be an input device safe… thing.” Ace suggests.

“We should do another sweep. Same locations as last time.” Four suggests. Ace decides to keep his mouth shut. They didn’t have time to argue. He and Four return to the main room.

The silently return to their search. After a few minutes, Four calls out. “Hey, Quincy, get in here! I found the safe!”

Ace turns to see Four waving him over to the closet. He jogs over to meet her. “Took you long enough.” She smirks.

“I’m not even going to fight you.” He kneels down in front of the safe and inspects the dial.

“I wonder what’s in it…” she ponders aloud.

“Hm?” He stops his investigation for a moment to glance at her before starting to twist in the code. 1 to the left, 4 to the right…

“What’s in the safe, I mean,” Four replies. 3 to the left, 8 to the right. “I think it’s a cracker,” she concludes.

Ace stops and looks at her in confusion. “What?”

“Or maybe a tie deposit box.”

“You honestly have got to be kidding me.” 3 to the left, 4 to the right…

“My, my, you must’ve been so popular at parties with an attitude like that.” 2 to the left and 1 to the right.

“Ha!” The safe clicks open. “Solving that one was too easy.”

“Good! Now grab the cracker and let’s blow this popstand!” Four runs back to the bedroom. Ace grabs the key and runs into the bedroom.

He walks over to the door and tries to pen it. “Locked. So that means this has to be the exit.” He inserts the key into the lock. “Are you guys ready? I’m going to open the door.”

“You don’t have to ask us,” Four snaps at him.

“Fine, fine.  3… 2… 1–”

She cuts him off. “For the sake of our sanity and our lives, please just open the damn thing!”

Ace twists the key and opens the door. Four bolts past him, Two and Three follow closely in tow, and Ace soon follows.

“Why isn’t it stopping?!” Four’s voice echoes in the empty halls. “Everyone, check your bracelets, now!”

Ace does as he’s told and checks the timer. The numbers continue to tick down.

“It’s still counting down!”

“Same here.”

“What did we do wrong?”

Ace begins to try every door in the surrounding area. “Locked, locked, locked, still locked…” The other three pick up on what he’s doing and join him in a frantic, mad search. Finally, Ace opens a pair of double doors.

“What about here?!” He calls to the others. They run over and push past him. He rolls his eyes and follows behind them.

“Looks like a casino,” Three muses.

“You know the drill, people.” Two steps forward. “Three and I will cover this half here; Four, Five, you two search that other half of the room.”

Ace and Four split off and began searching the room. At some point in their search, Ace sits down in one of the chairs and calls to Four. “Hey, Four! Look! I’m chairman!”

“Wipe that stupid look off your face, Quincy.” She glares at him with a look that could’ve burned through his soul.

He jumps up out of the chair. “Admit it, you laughed.”

“Stop right there, or else you won’t live to regret it.”

He throws his arms up as if surrendering and steps back. “Point taken.” He goes back to his search.

Soon Two and Three call them over. “We found the key!”

Ace and Four race over. Two and Three had already opened the door.

The four of them run through. They look down at their bracelets and check the timer.

“It stopped…” Ace sighs in relief.

“But now what?” Three asks what all of them were thinking.

“Didn’t we see a gate blocking off an area earlier?” Two pipes up. Nothing more is needed to be said. The group runs back to the gate blocking a stairwell. Ace, being the first to arrive, tries the key found in the 1st class cabin, but it didn’t even fit. Two, when he caught up, did the same. Instead, the key actually fit. Two frantically twists it and throws open the gate. The four of them run down to the C Deck. They had to stop as a gate was blocking their path to the D Deck.

“You’ve got to be kidding me.” Four points behind them. A long hall of doors looms before them. “No way I’m searching through all of those rooms!”

“Hey, cool it, small fry.” Ace glares at her. “We can search them all if we split up.”

“Yeah, no, I’m _not_ searching those rooms.” She glares back.

“What if there’s a numbered door down there?”

“As if Zero would make us suffer _that_ much!”

They went on, their voices getting louder and louder until they were both shouting. They went on like that until Two finally steps between them.

“Guys, why don’t we just go check a different area?”

“Fine!” Both Ace and Four cross their arms and give each other one last dirty look before storming down the hall in the opposite direction of the hall.

Once again, none of the doors open save a set of double doors. Two throws the doors open. An enormous hospital room looms before them. And directly opposite them were three numbered doors: 【3】, 【7】, and 【8】.

“Guess we didn’t have to look through all those doors.” Three finally says what all of them were thinking.

“Oh, thank god.” Ace lets out a huge sigh of relief.

Four shoots him a dirty look. “Weren’t you the one who wanted to search all those rooms?”

“I didn’t _want_ to, but I wanted to be sure we weren’t missing anything.”

“Um, Four, Five, we’ve got a problem.” Three summons them over. Two rolls his eyes.

“What am I? Chopped liver?” Two grumbles.

“Can you two test something with me?” Three points to the device to the left of 【Door 3】. “Can you two verify? I-I’m not gonna leave Two, but I want to see if these doors work.”

Ace and Four place their hands on the scanner, one after another. They step back and Three pulls the lever. The device doesn’t even respond, and the door remains locked.

Ace pulls on the handles, but the door doesn’t budge. After a few moments of trying to pull the handles, he starts to throw himself at it several times until his shoulder begins to ache. “No dice…”

“Did you notice it?” Four speaks up. “The recognition device didn’t even do its job.”

“Recognition device is too much of a mouthful.” Two grumbles. “Can we shorten it somehow?”

“Then call it a RED for all I care.” Ace rolls his shoulder.

Three glances at him. “RED?”

“ **Re** cognition **D** evice. And the thing inside, call them DEADs. **Dea** ctivation **D** evice.” Ace clarifies. “Save us a few seconds.”

“Wonderful!” A new voice interrupts. “It seems Zero has arranged for us to reunite.”

The four of them turn quickly and see the other five players had rejoined them. One was leading them.

“Yeah, well, the REDs aren’t working.” Four’s voice chimes in.

“RED?” One cocks his head to the side.

“Recognition device,” Ace explains. “The deactivation device; it’s called a DEAD.”

“Did Zero tell you that?” Nine glares at Ace.

“Just made it up.” Ace shrugs.

Nine was about to make a harsh comment when the speaker crackles to life.

“Greetings, participants. I see you have made it through the first set of challenges. You all must be wondering why the recognition devices refused to register your bracelets. If you please, check your bracelets’ timers.”

Everyone raises their left arm. No, not everyone – Four raises her right arm. _Why is her bracelet on her right arm?_ Ace didn’t have time to ask her, Zero already had begun to continue his explanation.

“The recognition devices shall reactivate in 72 minutes. I feel that should allow you substantial time to explore this ship.”

The speaker falls silent.

“You heard the man.” Six speaks up. “Let’s go split up.”

“I think I’ll stay here.” Ace stretches.

“Hmm? Why do you want to stay behind, Five?” Three asks.

“I didn’t get any sleep. And whatever knockout gas they used on us does not make for a good night’s sleep aid.”

“Very well, Five. You may stay here. But please be sure to wake in time for the next set of doors opening.” One says calmly.

The group splits off and Ace is left alone in the big hospital room. He sits down on the nearest bed and lies down. _Finally… I can get some rest…_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I would mention the other 8 players in the tags, especially Four, in the character tags but they're all not canon. Four is... well, if I went on I'd spoil the whole story.


	2. Septem

_ “Ah, they have completed the first challenge. Seeing as they have, would anyone like to change their bets?” _

_ “No.” _

_ “No, thank you.” _

_ “…” _

_ “Mr. Hongou?” _

_ “Hm? Ah, sorry. It’s nothing. It’s just… I can’t believe that my son is taking a nap here and now, of all times and places.” _

§

“How long’re you planning on sleeping, Five?” An unrecognizable voice chastises him.

“But dad… I said I wanted to be called Ace… it’s fewer syllables. Just five more minutes, okay?” He waves off the voice.

“Quincy, get your lazy ass up or Seven and I will throw you into 【Door 7】 alone.” Someone new scolds him.

Ace scrambles and sits up to see that Four and Seven were waiting for him, but the other six were nowhere to be seen.

“Before you ask, they already left. Nine, Six, and Two took 【Door 8】; One, Three, and Eight took 【Door 3】.”

“How did you know what I was thinking?” Ace gives her a weird look.

“Because I’m a psychic, ooooo.” Four turns and heads towards 【Door 7】.

“Yeah, and I’m Zero…” Ace rolls his eyes and follows behind her.

Four scans her bracelet, and Seven follows suit. Ace puts his hand on the scanner and graves the lever. He glances at both of them, then pulls the lever. The Number 【7】 Door opens slowly and in a blur, the three of them run in. It wasn’t long before they found the newly named DEAD and authenticate. Four pulls the lever and the ominous countdown stops. But as soon as that one stopped, a new one began.

“How long do we have?” Ace asks.

“Forty-five minutes,” Seven answers.

“Then let’s not waste any more time.” Four opens the door to their next room. Ace follows with Seven in tow. 

Suddenly, Four screams out. “There’s a dead guy!!”

Seven and Ace run into the room in a panicked rush. There, Four was trembling, pointing at the operating table. Upon it lay a motionless male mannequin.

“Ha ha…” Seven laughs nervously, before erupting into a full-out laughing fit. “It’s not a real person…”

Ace sighs with relief. “Don’t scare us like that, Four.”

Seven soon composes himself again. “Right, should we split up? I mean, One had us split up in the other room, so it seems like a sound strategy. Plus, I heard you two fighting down the hall. Did you realize how loud you were?”

“Well, I don’t want to be anywhere near Mr. Know-It-All-Has-To-Be-Right.” Four walks off and begins inspecting a medicine cabinet.

“Well, that settles it.” Seven goes off to inspect the table covered by a sheet and Ace checks near a model of a male organs system.

It didn’t take them long to find a key and then use it to unlock two rooms opposite their entrance. One room had a mysterious door with a symbol carved below the lock.

“Elapsam semel occasionem non ipse potest Iuppiter reprehendere…” Four mumbles.

“How did you… wait, crap! Did Zero take it?!” Ace frantically searches his person, checking his shirt’s chest pocket for something. “Oh, thank god, it’s still there.” He fumbles with his pocket for a bit, trying to pin something back on before realizing that Four and Seven were staring at him.

“What was that all about?” Seven asks.

“It’s nothing important, just something really important to me. N-never mind that.” He turns to Four. “What made you say that out of the blue?”

“The symbol on the lock was the symbol for Jupiter. So the words just… came to me.” She shrugs.

“I’m not even going to try to reason with you.” Ace shakes his head. “I’m simply going to accept that you’re hopelessly insane.”

“Says the hypercompetitive, stuck-up little jerk…” Four mutters something more, but Ace doesn’t hear it.

When their search of the room with the Jupiter lock bears nothing, they move over to the other room. Inside were countless bottles of chemicals all lined carefully on the shelves.

Seven picks up a bottle to inspect it when Four cries out: “Seven! Look out! You’re holding dihydrogen monoxide! Don’t you know that 100% of people who come into contact with dihydrogen monoxide die?!”

“What?!” Seven nearly drops the bottle and swiftly puts it back on the shelf in fear. Ace, on the other hand, is howling with laughter.

“Hahahaha! Yeah, water is totally a toxic substance!” He barely manages to speak through his laughter.

“That wasn’t funny, Four.” Seven crosses his arms.

Ace replies instead of Four. “ ‘Course it was hilarious! And normally this harpy has the sense of humor of a rock.” Ace finally catches his breath and immediately gives Four a smug look.

“Say. That. Again.” She growls.

“Oh, would you rather me call you a board?”

“You’re gonna pay for that one…” she grumbles. Four turns and begins inspecting the tool box on the center table. After a bit of frantic number mashing, the box opens. Inside is a lone key, with the Jupiter symbol engraved upon it. Ace grabs it and the three of them run back to the other room. He quickly shoves the key into Seven’s hands and runs back around the corner.

“The hell’re you doin’, Five?!” Seven calls after him.

Ace soon returns wearing a lab coat and a stupid smile. “Sorry, I honestly could not resist. It looks pretty cool, right?”

“You are a Grade A idiot, did you know that?” Four shakes her head. “Now hurry up or else Seven and I will leave you here.”

The three exit the room and follow a hall. At the end, waiting for them, were the six other participants.

“You gotta be kidding me, they’re already here?” Eight doesn’t seem too pleased to see them.

“Well hello to you too.” Ace retorts back.

One cuts in, “Now, now, we’re all friends here. We all want to escape. Now that that’s settled, let us proceed down this hall like the respectable and sensible adults I assume we all are.” One begins to stride down the hall with a look of rather stupid pride.

Ace rolls his eyes as he and the other eight participants follow One down the hall. They eventually reach a large set of doors.

“Okay, everyone, I’m going to open it–” 

Ace cuts One off and opens the doors for him. “As much as I would love for this moment to be dramatic, we don’t have time for dramatic.” He pushes past One to find himself back in the big hospital room.

“What?!” One looked completely shocked as he cries out. “We went in a circle?! All that for nothing?!”

“No.” Seven does his best to calm One. “We got a key in our room. Show ‘em, Five.”

Ace pulls out the Jupiter key and puts it back into his pocket.

“We also found a key.” Two holds up a key.

“The Earth key.” Four says. “It has the symbol for the earth on it.”

“One… we found a key, too.” Three holds up a key. Four once again identifies it for them as the Mercury key.

“Wonderful! This makes creating teams easy. Five, Four, and Seven! You guys go look for where the Jupiter key goes. Nine, Two, Six: you guys find where the Earth key goes, while Three, Eight, and myself shall find where the Mercury key goes. Let’s meet back at that staircase where all those rooms are in… an hour. So that’s when our timers say twelve minutes left. Let’s go, people!”

And with that they split up. Four oddly took the lead, but Ace kept close behind.

“So tell me,” Four suddenly speaks up. “Why did you suddenly panic when I said that Latin phrase?”

“Why should I tell you?” Ace grumbles.

“Are you still bitter about how easily I figured out that you have prosopagnosia?” Ace doesn’t have to see her to know she was smirking.

“Yes!” Ace reacts a bit more loudly than he would’ve liked, he quickly composes himself. “Ahem… I mean… yes, I am. I’d rather you not have known.”

“Ah… I see now,” Four turns back to face him and just as Ace had guessed, she is indeed smirking. “It makes perfect sense now that I think about it. You’re one of those types.”

“What could you possibly mean by that?”

“You’re concerned how everyone views you. Not quite in a vain way, although you do try your best to ‘dress to impress’. But the main thing about you is that you want everyone to see you as a successful man, and someone everyone wants to be. But your confidence comes off as arrogance, and you tend to seem like a stuck-up jerk to most people. And for some reason, you always need to be right, and whenever someone dares try to prove you wrong you get fired up, and rather hot-blooded. That, if you ask me, seems to be closer to your true nature.”

Ace prepares to respond, but Seven cuts in, “Hey, uh… sorry to interrupt this heart-to-heart, but, Five, could you give me the Jupiter key? I’ll go on ahead while you two can keep talking. This seems pretty important.”

“Oh, uh, sorry about that, Seven.” Ace pulls out the Jupiter key and hands it to the other man. “We didn’t mean to get sidetracked like that.”

“Thanks, Five.” Seven takes the key and walks off, he turns for a moment to call back to them: “All right, you two, have fun.”

Ace waits a moment after Seven leaves his field of view before pulling Four aside into one of the rooms she refused to search earlier.

“What the hell is this?!” She nearly shouts.

“Keep your voice down, dammit.” Ace glares at her. “This is important. And the others can’t know.”

Four calms down, but still returns Ace’s glare, “Then what is it then?”

“You know what I’m thinking, right?”

“No!” She doesn’t shout this time, but she’s very clearly irritated. “I’m not actually psychic!”

“It’s about Zero’s rule, about how only three to five people may enter a numbered door at a time.”

“Wait…” Four’s voice suddenly turns shaky. “What’re you saying?”

“Do you really think Zero would make an exception for the number【9】 door?”

“Does that mean…?”

“Only three to five people can win.” Ace starts to pace, six steps to the left, six to the right, six to the left, then stops.

“What if there are two number 【9】 doors?” Four suggests.

“Even if it were so, I really doubt that Zero would let all nine of us escape. He very clearly mentioned there would be losers.”

“No!” Four’s sudden outburst startles Ace. “I won’t accept that! I don’t want anyone to die!”

“Do you really think I’m so heartless as to want to leave anyone behind?”

“But…”

Ace cuts her off, “Listen, Four, let’s come back to this topic later. I want to head back to the hospital room.”

“Why…?”

“There’s something I want to test.” Ace heads back for the door. “Two things, actually.”

“What exactly?”

“I’ll show you once we get there. I think it would be easier to show you.”

Four gives him a look of suspicion, but follows him anyway. The two of them eventually arrive in the hospital room. Ace immediately goes to the RED by 【Door 3】. He places his hand on the panel. The device’s display of VACANT disappears and is replaced by a lone asterisk.

“What was that all about?” Four crosses her arms.

“Now we know that we can go back into 【Door 3】, 【Door 7】, and 【Door 8】 whenever we want.” Ace pulls the lever, but rather than opening, the display simply reads ‘ERROR’.

“Okay, so now what?”

“This is really what I wanted to check…” Instead of placing his hand on the panel, he simply waves his bracelet over the scanner panel. The device’s ‘VACANT’ display is replaced with an asterisk, just like when he placed his hand on the panel. “Of course you take that route, Zero. It would be too difficult to program all of our unique prints.”

“Care to explain, Quincy?”

“First, like I said, we can go back into rooms all we like, and the timers are for the next set of REDs. Second, we don’t need a person to open a door. Just their bracelet.” Ace pauses a moment. “Actually, could you give me your arm? Your left one.”

Four raises her right arm instead. “Didn’t you notice? My bracelet is on my right arm.”

Ace rolls his eyes and inspects the underside of her bracelet.

There, where a clasp should have been, is a keyhole. Unfortunately, something is blocking it. 

“Did Zero explain in the letter how to get these things off?”

“Yes, he did. Either your heart rate reaches zero or you escape. The lock unblocks and it can be removed.”

“Hmm… Why do you think we’re all trapped here?” Ace asks, letting go of Four’s arm.

“Dunno. Wish I knew. Maybe some secret government test?”

“I have an idea… but it’s just that: an idea.”

“Well, tell me anyway.”

“This might just be one big game, like a glorified gladiator fight.”

Four scoffs at him. “And what? Millionaires are betting on who wins and who dies? What makes you say that anyway?”

“I don’t know… I just… know.” Ace shrugs.

“Are you mocking me?”

“Yes and no. Yes, because it’s fun to poke fun at you, and no because I feel like I remembered something from a really long time ago.”

“Well that explains it completely!” Four put her hands on her hips and shakes her head. “But you… I don’t know… you’ve told me I’m hopelessly insane but I think… no, I  know you’re actually right.”

“What?!” Ace could hardly believe what she just said.

“I’ll explain why, but you have to trust me.”

“I trust you.” He says as firmly as he can.

Four shakes her head. “I know you probably do mean those words but swear on something. Something of great value.”

Ace thinks for a moment, then reaches into his shirt pocket and unpins a metal brooch from the inside. “You know how important this is to me.” He holds it out for her to see. “It’s hard, if not impossible, to fake that level of panic when I thought I lost it back behind 【Door 7】. So I swear on this.” He puts the brooch back in his pocket.

Four nods and checks her timer. “15 minutes isn’t enough to tell you the details, but… we have to kill someone.”

“But didn’t you just say–”

Four cuts him off. “I know what I said! But we need to kill someone… to make it efficient, I say Nine.”

“Why Nine?”

“He’s the fastest way out. If you add nine to any combination of numbers, it won’t affect the digital root. You realize how much power that jerk has? More importantly, what’s the digital root of our bracelets?”

“【5】+【4】... with his bracelet, we could escape.”

“So how’re we gonna kill the son of a bitch? Because I ain’t got any ideas.”

Ace once again starts pacing. He suddenly stops and then looks at Four.

“Hey, Four, how’s your acting?”


	3. Unus

_ This is an… interesting development, to say the least.” _

_ “You say that every time, Zero. Murder is no a rare occurrence.” _

_ “Even so, the path to it is rather… fascinating.” _

_ “I just hope that my son has more sense than to go through with it.” _

_ “Only time will tell, Mr. Hongou.” _

§

“Are the teams decided? Great! Then it’s time for us to split up!” One begins walking towards the Central Staircase. Ace and Four follow.

Ace runs their conversation over in his mind.

_ “During our next break we need to find Nine and get him alone. Use your feminine wiles if you want. Just get that bastard alone. Do your best to get him all the way into one of those rooms, then it’s on me.” _

_ “How’s it on you?” _

_ “I found a knife in the 3rd Class Cabin. If I can do this right, a single blow to the neck should do him in.” _

_ “And if it doesn’t?” _

_ “Let’s hope my English background doesn’t translate to the inability to do those rodeo things you Americans have.” _

Ace glances at Four who nods in agreement. One leads them to the number【1】 door and scans his hand on the RED’s panel. Four and Ace follow suit. Four pulls the lever and in a blur, the three of them race into 【Door 1】. They find the DEAD near the door and they rapidly verify and Ace is the one who pulls the lever and their countdown ends. Ace checks his timer.

“We have 63 minutes.” Ace tells them.

Four giggles in amusement. “My, my, Zero must really like the number 9. Nonary Game and all.”

“What?” One looks at Four with extreme confusion.

“‘Nona’ is the prefix that means nine, coming from the Latin word meaning nine. And look around us: nine doors, nine players, nine hours to escape. Notice the doors, too. Their digital roots upon being added.” Four grabs a pen and a piece of paper and writes out several equations.

 

【5】+【4】=【9】

【3】+【7】+【8】= 18 → 【1+8】=【9】

【1】+【2】+【6】=【9】

 

“Now look at our bracelet combination by the end.”

 

【1+2+3+4+5+6+7+8+9】= 45 →【4+5】=【9】

 

“Remember all the times we were given?”

 

【18】→【1+8】=【9】

【45】→【4+5】=【9】

【72】→【7+2】=【9】

【63】→【6+3】=【9】

 

“How long do we have before doors close?”

Ace answers, “Nine seconds.”

“How long do we have to find the DEAD?”

“81 seconds. Nine times nine.”

“Yep, Zero has an obsession with the number 9,” Four says proudly.

“Then again, can’t blame the guy… the number is really amazing. But enough marveling at the mathematical wonder that is nine. We have a… whatever this place is to search.”

Without another word, they split up. With Four’s aid, Ace is able to figure out the navigation puzzle, turning the wheel as the navigation book suggested. Upon turning the wheel the last time, the wheel clicks and a small key drops out from the helm. Ace scoops the key up and the three of them turn to the locked door behind them. Ace unlocks the door and Four pushes past him.

He goes to enter, but Four screams. “Oh my God! No!!!”

“Four?!” One runs to her. Ace follows, if not more panicked than when she screamed in 【Door 7】. The two of them run through some sort of office and into another room that looked like some kind of cabin. But she isn’t harmed. There is no one there, except a terrified One and a mischievous Four.

‘What the hell…?” He couldn’t help but stare.

“Hehe… Imagine if there actually was a dead guy. How messed up would that be?” She smiles playfully.

“Fool me once, shame on me. Fool me twice, shame on you.”

“You’re right. We’ve got a room to search.” She gives One a reassuring pat on the back. “Let’s go, One.”

Once One had calmed down, the three of them set to finding the key to unlock the door, which had a code and a key. Ace and Four remain in the Captain’s quarters while One goes to check the office.

At some point during their search Ace picks up a note on the bed in the corner and reads it aloud:

 

_ Who am I? _

_ Perhaps a clue…  _

_ Beginning and end…  _

_ We look back 9 years. _

 

“It’s Zero, obviously,” Four says with confidence. “This is the captain’s quarters. But the other part… I think it’s related to Alpha and Omega…”

“Caesar cipher. Alphabet. So…” Ace begins to write out the alphabet on a sheet of paper and below it he instead starts at R.

 

A B C D E F G H…

R S T U V W X Y…

 

“When you shift backwards 9 and take the letters Z E R O, you get I N A X.”

“Okay, that’s cool and all but what do we do with that?” Four ponders on this for a moment before One interrupts, poking his head out the door leading to the office.

“Sorry for interrupting, but I wanted to check in with you two and say that I found an old telegraph machine. Did I miss anything important?”

“Oh, duh.” Four shakes her head. “How didn’t I notice it?”

“Notice what?” Ace looks at Four with confusion.

“Quincy, how much do you know about Morse Code?”

It’s One’s turn to look at Four with confusion. “Who’s Quincy?”

Ace raises his hand. “That would be me. My bracelet number is 【5】, so Four gave me a nickname.”

“Ah, I see. Anyway, ‘Quincy’, why don’t you come with me into the office and help me with something.” One heads back into the office. “Would you mind searching alone for a bit, Four?”

Four shrugs, “Whatever.”

Ace follows behind One, leaving Four alone to search the cabin. Upon entering the office One hands him a set of papers. “Here. I found these.” On them is Morse Code.

“Four must’ve meant that the letters from the Caesar cipher are to be translated into Morse Code.” Ace mumbles to himself. He sits down at the desk and enters in the code for “INAX”. Once he finishes, the desk drawer unlocks.

Inside is a strange key, along with another note.

 

_ Quis sum ego? _

_ Veritas esset _

_ In sinistra mans, requiet in tenebris _

_ Fugere de navi debita et reddi. _

 

_ At  _ **_dawn_ ** _ the revelation draws near. The  _ **_key_ ** _ is now in  _ **_place_ ** _. _

 

“The hell…?” One hovers over Ace’s shoulder, reading the note as well.

“Heh, this is too easy.” Ace smirks. “You see, dawn is a reference to first light. You know, sunrise. So the revelation is the answer. The key in place is the placement of the letters. The first letters.”

“But the pad is not letters, Five. They’re numbers.”

“Place… place… what if place also refers to where the letters are located? But what could key mean?” Ace stands up and heads back to the cabin. There, Four is waiting for him.

“Find anything?” She asks calmly.

“Yes. But I’m trying to solve this last riddle.” Ace repeats the note to her.

“Well, didn’t Zero mention something about digital roots being the key to our escape?”

“That… actually makes sense.” Ace runs over the numbers in his head and walks over to the lock. He first puts in the strange key then inputs the digits: 8, 4, 9, then 5. The door clicks open.

“Good job, Quincy! You did it!” Four jumps up in excitement. How much of it was superficial was unknown to Ace. “Who’s a good boy? Who’s a good boy?”

“I’m not a dog! And I’m 27, thank you very much!” He grumbles and crosses his arms.

The three of them race out and find themselves back at the central staircase. Suddenly Six bursts into the room a floor below them.

“Yo! Guys! We found it!” He calls up to them.

“Found what?” Ace leans over the edge.

“The Hope Diamond! No, the number 【9】 door! C’mon! Let’s go!”

Ace runs past the other and scurries down the stairs. Four on the other hand decides to take an alternate route, vaults herself over the railing and lands extremely gracefully. One follows behind Ace. Six waits a moment for them to join them before running off, explaining to them what had happened. 

“So we went down an elevator and went into 【Door 6】. When we came out, we had apparently done a lap, but that’s not what’s important. What’s important is that we found a door. It was locked with the same timer as our 72 minutes break, but there was a note. It read,  _ ‘The Leader, The Flame, The Silence, The Guardian, The Progeny, The Debt , The Faithful, The Damned, and the Hopeless. What do they all share? Salvation for them lies ahead.’  _ I’ve got no clue what it meant, but it has to be 【Door 9】.”

“Wait.” Four stops. “If there’s a timer, then we have over an hour more before the door opens. Shouldn’t we be looking around some more? That riddle might hold a clue to why we were all brought here. We’ve all been jumping when Zero says jump, but don’t you want to know why?”

One speaks up. “That is quite true. All right. Then we should all meet at the central staircase.”

Ace goes to say something but suddenly he feels his knees buckle from under him, or at least he hoped it looked that way to the others. “I-I’m… I’m okay…”

They bought it hook, line, and sinker. One rushes to his side. “Five?! Are you okay?!”

“Y-Yeah… I’m fine… d-didn’t think the stress would be getting to me… I’ll be fine.” He tries to stand up only to collapse again. “Don’t worry about me, alright?”

“No, you need to go lie down. Right now.” One wraps Ace’s arm around his neck and helps him all the way back to the big hospital room. Six and Four follow closely behind.

Ace sits down on one of the beds. “Th-thanks…” He swallows his pride again. “But what about searching f-for–”

Four cuts him off. “You’ll be useless in this state. You stay here. There’s still eight of us.”

“But…” He tries to protest

“She’s right. Stay here. We’ll come back and report any of our findings.” One shakes his head.

Six chimes in. “Now, let’s go and get the others.”

One, Four, and Six left, leaving Ace alone. He waits for a few minutes before getting up and going into the room he and Four had been in earlier, and waited in the closet for her to arrive with Nine.

He waits for 5, 10, 15 minutes. Finally, around 20 minutes later, the door opens.

“So, Four, you wanted me to show you a good time?”

“Oh, no, please, call me Katherine. If we’re really doing this, please, call me by my real name.”

There’s a long pause of silence before Nine speaks up. “But why me? Isn’t that weirdo Five your boyfriend?”

“Of course he isn’t. He’s stubborn, idiotic and definitely not my type. He’s just… oh what’s the word…?”

And that was his cue. He slowly turns the knob and slides out of the closet.

“Now, now, let’s not speak any more.”

Ace takes a few slow steps and approaches gently before he suddenly pushes off the ground and leaps at Nine in the blink of an eye. He goes straight for Nine’s neck and drives the knife right where Four had told him the jugular is located. The next few seconds were a complete blur. One moment Nine was perfectly fine, the next he was bleeding out. Four checks Nine’s pulse. 

“No pulse… he’s dead…” she says solemnly.

“Just like that…” He still feels out of it. “Sorry, you didn’t need to see that…”

“No, it’s fine… and good riddance.” Four fixes her sweater, crooked from whatever she was doing earlier. “He was… his breath reeked! And he smelled like a sweaty gym.”

“What… the fuck…?” Ace could hardly believe her reaction.

“Well? Don’t just stand there like a deer caught in the headlights. Get the damn bracelet off him! And for fuck’s sake ditch that lab coat! I can’t believe you’re still wearing it after all this time!”

Ace does his best to shake of his stupefied state and runs over to Nine’s body. Sure enough, the keyhole on the back is no longer blocked. Four goes to the door and plays lookout in case someone comes by.

Ace gets straight to work on trying to undo the lock with his knife. “Come on, you damn thing… open, goddammit… if I were in charge of this, the bracelets would just come undone, and not have some dumb lock like this…” 

The clasp suddenly comes undone. “Got it!”

“Good!” Four calls over to him. “Now let’s blow this popstand.”

Ace throws off the lab coat and covers Nine’s corpse with it as best he can. The two of them burst into a full out run.

“Wait!” Ace suddenly stops. Four skids to a stop. “Who has the key to the elevator to get to 【Door 9】? The… um… the Saturn key.”

Four holds up a key with the symbol for Saturn on it. “Already on it, Quincy.”

“You’re really starting to grow on me, Kat.” Ace smirks at Four as they resume their run towards the Saturn Elevator.

“Call me that again and I promise you, I’ll gut you like a fish.” Four glares at Ace.

“Now that I think about it, your bracelet number is 【4】, and the French word for the number 4 happens to be–”

“If you’re going to call me Kat, then by all means go on, but know that if you do, I’m never not going to call you anything but Five or Quincy.”

He shrugs. “I am perfectly fine with that. Although, I’d actually prefer it if you’d call me Ace.”

The two of them arrive at the elevator. Four goes to unlock it. “Why Ace?”

“Because it’s a lot cooler than my real name.” They both walk in and Ace presses the down button.

“What’s your real name then?”

“When we get out of here, I’ll be happy to tell you… or not.”

“Yeah, no, you’re Quincy. End of discussion.”

It isn’t long before the elevator arrives at the E Deck. Four takes the lead and they rush down the hall.

“Do you have any idea where we’re going?” Ace asks at some point.

“Yeah. The other’s filled me in while you were playing hookie.” Four keeps her focus ahead. “Hey, Quincy, how much time do we have left before the door unlocks?”

Ace looks down at his bracelet, “One minute.”

“Crap. They’re probably looking for us.”

“50 seconds.”

“We’re almost there, be patient.”

“30 seconds.”

“Would you please put a sock in it?!”

“15 seconds.”

Four suddenly stops and Ace does too. “We’re here, Father Time.”

Before them is a strange door with a diamond pattern the top and bottom halves of the door.

Ace didn’t have time to marvel at it, as the lock suddenly clicks. Four throws the door open. The inside is almost somber. There are several rows of what appears to be chapel pews, and the walls are decorated with candles along them, evenly spaced out. But that isn’t what left Ace speechless. It is the enormous set of double doors on one end. On its face is a number 【9】, painted on crudely, like someone had splattered blood just to display it.

Four is the first to walk in. “We made it…”

Ace enters in shortly after, looking around in awe at the strange room. He turns to his left and sees an altar of sorts and a strange alcove. He breaks off from Four’s lead and goes to inspect it. It is then he saw it, in the alcove.

“Four… turn around… right now…” He speaks slowly.

Four spins around. “What the hell…? There are two number 【9】 doors? I guess that’s why Zero didn’t want us to see this room… he wanted us to kill someone, or even several people.”

A chill runs down Ace’s spine. “No…”

“No what?” Four gives him a weird look.

“No, as in ‘no, something’s wrong’.” Ace starts frantically pacing. “Don’t go anywhere.”

“Uh, okay…?” Four sits down in one of the pews and watches Ace carefully.

“I… something’s wrong… very, very wrong.”

“What is it?”

“Shut up!” He suddenly yells. “Just… shut up. I’m this close to remembering…” He begins to mutter to himself. “【Door 9】… Nonary Game… Titanic… digital roots… Zero… Zero… Zero…”

“Um… Quincy? Are you–”

“Son of a bitch!” He grabs Four’s arm and half drags her to the smaller number 【9】 door. “We need to go now!”

“What the hell’re you doing?!” She yelps, trying to struggle free.

“That large door? It’s a trap! And if we don’t get going now, we’re not going to have enough time to escape at all!” Ace most nearly slams Nine’s bracelet onto the RED of the door in the back. He then scans his bracelet and pulls Four over to scan her bracelet. She shakes herself free and he’s unable to scan it.

“Tell me why it’s a trap and why you know this.” She glowers at him.

“Long story short, I remembered something. Namely how the endgame works.”

“Why do you know how the endgame works?” Four crosses her arms taps her foot impatiently.

“Do you trust me?” Ace asks as calmly as he can. “I put blind faith in you and now I need you to reciprocate.”

“Yes… yes, I trust you.” She calms down and meets his eye. “I swear on the River Styx that you have my full trust.”

“River Styx?”

“It’s an Ancient Greek thing. Swear on Styx and it’s an unbreakable promise. Well, if you break it you die.”

Ace blinks in confusion. “You believe in that stuff?”

“Yes! I do! Now tell me already! Besides, it’s only fair I trust you!”

“Fine…” Ace takes a breath. “When I was younger, my father brought me along to these games. They’re annual so I went with him a good several times. I don’t remember a lot of details, but what I do remember is hearing the other spectators discussing how foolish some of the players were for choosing the obvious door, and how they’re in for a terrible surprise.”

Four goes to say something but she doesn’t. Instead she scans her bracelet on the RED. “You’re gonna have to tell me later, Quincy. I think I hear the others coming. We need to go. Now.”

Ace grabs the lever and pulls it. The two of them nod and race through the smaller number 【9】 door, to whatever challenges awaits them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Nah, I'm too lazy to translate that Latin. I might do it.


	4. Nona

_ “So… how many of you bet on Nine being the victor?” _

_ “I did.” _

_ “I as well.” _

_ “Very well then. You all know the rules. As for–” _

_ “Zero.” _

_ “Is there a problem, Mr. Hongou?” _

_ “If possible, I wish to take a short… ah, break. Watching my son kill another man is… something I never thought I would happen, let alone see. I would like to step out for a short while.” _

_ “Of course. Return when you are ready. We will not proceed with altering our bets until you return.” _

_ “Thank you.” _

§

The race against time began. Once they verifies at the DEAD, Ace checks their time limit.

“Damn, 144 minutes? You’re being rather generous today, huh, Zero?” He muses.

“Y-Yeah, we need to go.” Four finally talks after remaining silent since they entered, but her voice trembles as she speaks.

“Four, are you okay?” Ace turns to face her, only to see her shaking like a leaf in a windstorm.

“Y-Yeah. I-I’m fine. L-Look…” She points to a door nearby. It had a keyhole with a strange pattern, like the others before it. “It seems we need to find the Neptune key.”

“Okay, but if you’re not feeling well enough to search, just tell me, okay? I’d hate to lose my teammate.” Ace begins to walk down the hall. “We don’t have time to lose.”

The two of them follow the hall until they find themselves in an enormous library. Unsurprisingly, upon entering the door closes behind them and locks.

“Well, now we know why we have well over two hours to search.” Ace turns to say something more but Four suddenly collapses, consumed by tears.

“Four?!” Ace runs to her side out of instinct.

“Why…?” She barely manages to speak through her tears. “Why? Why did it have to be this way?”

Ace wastes no time helping her to the side of the library, so that she had a place to sit with her back to something. He sits down next to her. She rests her head on his shoulder and continues to sob on and on until she seemed to have run out of tears.

“Why did it have to be this way?” Her voice is hoarse and weak when she finally speaks. “Why did he have to die? Why did any of this have to happen?”

Ace sighs. “I might be bad with my timing, but I guess now seems to be as good of a time as ever to explain the Nonary Game.”

Four looks at him and nods quietly. “Okay… go on…”

“Let’s start at the beginning with Lord Dashiell Gordain. Lord Gordain was a passenger on the Titanic, and he was one of the lucky survivors. But he didn’t leave empty handed. He suddenly became obsessed with collecting anything and everything related to the Titanic. He even wanted the ship itself. Of course that wasn’t possible, but he was able to purchase one of her sister ships, the Gigantic. This is where I lack details, but this monomaniac eventually started hosting these… games on the Gigantic. Nonary Games, as they would one day be called. Gordain would kidnap young Englishmen who have accumulated a lot of debt and force them to play these games. The winners would walk away, the losers would burn in the incinerator in some sort of cult ritual. Somewhere along the line, one of Gordain’s successors added that the winners would be relieved of their debt, but that’s irrelevant. Gordain, and eventually his successors, would then invite friends to spectate on these games, and bet on the victors and losers. The reason why I know what I did was because my father happened be friends with one of Gordain’s successors, with Zero, and he brought me along when I was younger. But… it was, I think, because he expected me to be a spectator myself one day, and he wanted me to know how I should wager. He never once thought that I could have possibly ended up being… a participant.”

“So why are you a participant then?” Four asks weakly.

“I think it’s because I screwed up. I tried to start up a pharmaceutical company. To save you the headache of explaining how stuff in the pharmaceutical industry works, I’ll keep it short. Once you make a new drug, you have a period of time before other companies can start producing generics. It’s first come, first serve. We were able to develop a drug, but it… someone else got to it first. And since we were a new company we took the hit pretty hard. I ended up having to invest what money I had in order to keep us from going bankrupt. I bet you’re thinking that I should’ve asked my father for money or help, well, there’s a problem with that. He would’ve refused to help finance anything. He wanted me to find my way on my own. Besides, I wouldn’t have asked him anyway. I wouldn’t want him knowing that I screwed up that badly.”

“What about your mother?”

It was an innocent enough question, but Ace couldn’t help but smile sorrowfully. “She… ah… I never knew her. She died when I was very, very young. Remember my brooch?” He taps his chest pocket where the brooch is pinned inside. “That’s all I have of her. I’m not even sure who’s on the pin. I’d like to think it’s her and she’s always watching over me, but… I’ll never be able to tell. Try as I might…”

“I’m sorry…” Four stares at the ground.

“Don’t be.”

“Ace… I–”

“Kat, um, Four, you can… uh… my name… it’s Gentarou. Gentarou Hongou.” He sighs and stares off at nothing. “I told you basically my whole life story, you might as well know my real name.”

“Then… I guess you can call me Kat, since it’s only fair.” She goes to rest her head on his shoulder again. “Am I a bad person?”

Ace is somewhat taken aback by her question. “What? Of course not. What makes you think that?”

“But… but I told you to kill someone.”

“It was a necessary evil.” Ace shrugs with his one free shoulder.

“But–”

“But nothing. You’re not a bad person. If anything, I’m the bad guy. I’m the one who slit his throat. Worse yet, I don’t feel any guilt for it. Truth be told, I’ve never felt any guilt when it comes to hurting people. Physically or emotionally.”

“What?”

“Ah, one of the many joys of my condition. Tell me, have you ever been to the zoo or watched any TV show with monkeys?” Four, Kat, nods slowly. “Were you able to distinguish one monkey from another?”

“No…”

“That’s what it’s like for me, every damn day. I just spend all my days surrounded by monkeys, trying to pretend that they’re human or something that’s even remotely something I can relate to. You know, I can’t bear to look in mirrors because I won’t even be able to recognize my own face.”

“Gentarou…” She sits up and meets his gaze.

“Kat, listen. You’re completely innocent. There’s absolutely no blood on your hands. I’ll take all the blame if it comes to it.” Ace pauses a moment, then reaches for his chest pocket and unpins the brooch he had pinned to the inside of the pocket. He looks down at it one last time before holding it out to Kat. “I swear, no matter what lies ahead, I won’t let anything happen to you… and this… this is my word.” He takes her hand and gently places the brooch into her open palm.

“I… I can’t take this.” Kat tries to hand it back to Ace, but he shakes his head.

“Kat, look. I’m making you a promise. And that brooch is all I have to show that I won’t break it.”

“B-But why?”

“Because I trust you. Because… because for some reason, I don’t feel ashamed that you know that I have prosopagnosia. I don’t know why, but I just… know and truthfully, that’s good enough for me.”

Kat remains silent. She hesitates a moment before pinning the brooch on. Then, out of the blue she launches herself at Ace and throws her arms around him. He’s caught off guard with her sudden embrace, but he quickly returns it. Ace can hear her crying again, but this time, they aren’t tears of sorrow. “Thank you, Ace… thank you so much…”

They remain like that for several minutes before Kat finally releases him, wiping away the tears. “I guess I should probably come clean with you. Have you ever heard of Rupert Sheldrake?”

“I think. He did a lot of research on plants, right?”

“Well, yes. But I’m talking about his research on morphogenetic field theory and morphic resonance and how they relate to telepathy.”

“Telepathy?” Ace couldn’t believe what she was saying.

“Yes.” Kat grumbles, somewhat irritated. “That’s what I said. Anyway, I’ve actually experienced this phenomenon first hand.”

“You’ve actually experienced it?”

“Yes, parrot boy, I have. Now shut up and let me explain. People are capable of imprinting information into these fields as well as drawing information out. Normally it takes hundreds if not thousands of people to leave an imprint on the field, but there are a few people who have special abilities. Two kinds of people actually. There are people who are better at writing information into these fields, and there are people who are good at pulling information out of these fields–” Kat pauses and looks down at her bracelet. “Damn… that’s not enough to explain. Sorry, Gen, but we’re going to have to cut this story short. We don’t have all day, and this might take hours if not days to explain.”

“But–”

Kat cuts him off. “We don’t have much of a choice. Sorry. But I find it really weird how my abilities have been so heightened. There’s no one here to resonate with so why…?”

“You’re a telepath?!”   


Kat ignores him and suddenly grabs his shoulders and shakes him. “Of course! Danger! Adrenaline! That’s how! Epiphany helps enough but danger really makes it easy!”

Ace barely manages to speak he was so dizzy from her nonsensical words and being shaken. “You’ve lost me.”

“I’ll explain later. For now, let’s go!” Kat grabs Ace’s arm and drags him along. “We need to get moving!”

“Okay, okay, at least someone’s in better spirits.” Ace smiles and lets her drag him along.

“You bet your ass, Quincy!” She lets go and gives him a giddy, proud grin.

Without another word, the two of them split up and begin searching the massive library.

About 20 minutes later they reconvene at a table near the entrance.

“So, whaddya find?” Kat asks.

“I found two… very random children’s books and a light bulb.” Ace places the items on the table.

“Convenient. I found one book and two light bulbs.” Kat holds up the spoils of her search. “Let’s head downstairs. There’s something down there that looks kinda suspicious.”

Ace picks up the items he found and the two of them head downstairs to the area below. There in the center is an incredibly strange looking object.

“What is  **that** ?” Ace doesn’t even realize he was thinking out loud until Kat responds.

“That… is a nonagonal prism.” Kat answers without hesitation.

“A what?” Ace blinks in confusion.

“Nonagonal prisim. The bases are nonagons and the sides are rectangles. It’s basic geometry.”

“You’re basic geometry.” Ace grumbles.

“ **Anyway** , gimme that light bulb you found, and I’ll give you the book I found.” Kat tosses the book at Ace. He barely has enough time to react and catch it before it nails him in the face.

Ace mutters something under his breath then carefully hands the light bulb he found to Kat.

“Thank you kindly.” She takes the light bulb and walks over to the nonagonal prism in the center of the room. “Oh, and nice catch by the way.”

Ace rolls his eyes and opens the book he barely caught. The book itself half springs open on its own. “Holy shit!” He nearly drops the book.

“You doing okay over there, Five?” Kat calls over to him.

“Yeah. I’m good. And would you pick a nickname for me and stick with it already?”

“Hmm… nah. I’m gonna call you whatever I want, Ace.” She chuckles.

Ace decides against arguing with her. It wouldn’t be worth the effort. Instead, he focuses his attention on the book. The pop-ups in it were rather unusual. Instead of pictures, letters pop out. Ace checks the other two, and sure enough, they also had letters rather than pictures. 

“Kat, these books… I think they go in the prism.”

“Then by all means, bring them over!” She beckons him over. “I think there are places inside for them to go.”

Ace jogs back over to where Kat is and checks out the inside of the prism. Inside were three evenly spaced out shelves of sorts. After a few moments of trying to orient the books, they finally were able to see the message in the books.

“ _ Britannica 9? _ ” Kat reads the message out loud and she was at a loss, for once.

“Oh, this one is easy. Under normal circumstances I’d gladly take this moment to gloat and rub it in your face, but we aren’t under normal circumstances. Basically, the Gigantic is actually just the codename for the Britannic. Most people are familiar with the Britannic being the sister ship of the Titanic, and it supposedly sank in the… Kea Channel, but here she is. If we were underwater, we’d be dead–”

“And soaking wet.” Kat adds with a smirk.

“I’m just going to pretend you didn’t just say that.” Ace shoots her an unamused look. “Anyway! The point I was trying to make is that Britannica is an encyclopedia. Specifically,  _ Encyclopædia Britannica _ . And we all know that Zero has an obsession with the number 【9】.”

“So you’re just saying Zero was trying to be clever, but he wasn’t.”

“Yeah, this puzzle wasn’t exactly anything special. I mean I could probably have done better. Hell, if I were Zero I could definitely do a better job than what he’s done, maybe add higher stakes–”

“Hey, Quincy, stop imagining what you would do if you were Zero, and finish this game.” Kat crosses her arms. “Anyway, I saw something that said ‘Britannica’ behind you.”

“Okay, okay, I see your point.” Ace turns around and walks over to the shelf. “And thank you.”

“ _ Alice sleeps in a small chamber beneath the navel of the Gigantic beyond the forest of knowledge… _ ” Kat mutters.

Ace gives Kat a weird look before kneeling down and scanning over the books. “What is with you and cryptic messages?”

“Supposedly Gordain told that to a friend. You know, the nutcase who started these Nonary Games. Well, said nutcase had also purchased an Egyptian mummy on the black market. That mummy was, is All-ice or Alice, she had been on the Titanic supposedly.”

“Alice, the woman who never thawed out…” Ace finally finds the ninth volume and pulls it out. Two things fall out from the book. The first is a key bearing some kind of symbol, the other is a paper with some kind of numeric code. Ace puts both into his pocket.

“So you do know.”

“What? Her supposedly being made of 【ice-9】?” Ace shrugs.

“How do you know about 【ice-9】?”

“I had a lot of free time as a kid.” Ace goes to put the book back when something caught his eye. There is a button behind where the book was initially. He reaches in and presses the button. The room rumbles.

“Wh-what did you do?!” Kat yelps.

“I-I just hit a button! Don’t bite my head off! Sheesh…” Ace runs up the stairs and to the catwalk. There, opposite the entrance, the shelves had split revealing a new path.

Ace and Kat run over to the new path opened to them. There, behind the bookcase is a keyboard of sorts with strange numerals on the wall behind it.

“Great…” Kat grumbles. “Now what?”

Ace pulls out the paper he found in the book moments ago. “I wonder if this has anything to do with that puzzle.”

“Well, those numerals behind the keyboard are the numbers, 13, 14, 10, and 13 in Roman Numerals.”

Ace looks down at the paper again. “I wonder if this is like number bases. You know, like hexadecimals. If so, this one is pretty weird. I guess that means we need to find the letter equivalents of those numbers.” Ace walks over to the keyboard and looks down at the paper once more. “If that’s the case… then the solution is… D-E-A-D.”

“Well, that’s a little grim, isn’t it?” Kat muses.

Something to their right clicks open. They both run over to find that the door had unlocked. They look at each other a moment and nod in agreement and enter the room.

Ace only takes a few steps in and stops. “Wait for it… 3… 2… 1…” The door slams shut behind him. “And now we’re trapped. No surprise there.”

“And you’re not panicking?”

“How could I? After all, it’s rather cliché to trap people in rooms with doors that automatically lock.” Ace shrugs.

“Well, let’s see if Zero’s got any other cliché tricks in here.” Kat shakes her head with a smile. “Usual strategy, then?”

“It seems to have worked well in the other rooms, so why not?” Without another word, they split up.

A good ten minute in, Ace calls Kat over to a to a monitor, “Kat, you’re an American, right? I need your help.”

She rolls her eyes, but walks over anyway. “I don’t see how me being an American offers me an advantage but whatever.” When she gets over to where Ace is, she reads the monitor what the monitor had on screen out loud:

“Nine years ago, there was a baseball game. Silvester Ennea is Cleveland’s lead-off hitter. There were no substitutions or changes to the batting order for Cleveland during the nine inning game. Ennea came to bat every inning. What is the least number of runs Cleveland could have scored?”

Ace sighs, “I have no idea how baseball works.”

“Hmmm… I don’t know’s on third.” This time it is Kat’s turn to shrug.

“Wait, who’s on third?” Ace gives Kat a weird look.

“No, who’s on first.”

“What?”

“No, what’s on second.”

“I don’t know.”

“I don’t know’s on third, you idiot.”

“Why?”

“He’s left field.”

“Who’s left field?”

“No, who’s on first.”

“I’m not asking you who’s on first. So, what’s the guy’s name on third?”

“What’s on second.”

“Oh for–You know what? Solve this puzzle yourself. I don’t give a damn.” Ace throws his arms in the air in frustration.

“That’s shortstop.” Kat smiles.

“You know what? I–oh my god, I just got it…” Ace gives a long sigh.

Kat chuckles, “Anyway, back to the puzzle. I’ll give it to you straight: It’s the top of the first inning, Ennea and Batters 2 and 3 are walked, so bases are loaded. Batters 4, 5, and 6 all strikeout. Three outs end an inning, and they go into the bottom half of the inning, but we can ignore the bottom halves because the other team’s score isn’t important. Top of the second inning, Batters 7, 8, and 9 all are walked. Ennea comes to bat, but 7, 8, and 9 get antsy and try to steal, they all are picked off, ending the top half of the inning. Going into the third inning, Ennea is now up at bat, and the first inning repeats for all the odd innings, and the second inning repeats for all the even innings. Nine innings pass, and Cleveland walks away with 【0】 runs. A painful, and embarrassing loss for Cleveland and quite the amazing victory for their pitcher.”

“That was… really complicated. How did you know all those rules anyway?” Ace couldn’t help but be amazed.

“I have an older brother. He really likes watching games, so I learned a lot because he happened to be in the same room as him. He could get a little… ah, worked up during Yankees games. Couldn’t blame him though. It’s good baseball.” Kat pauses then shakes her head. “I know baseball is known as the great American pastime and all, but not everyone knows the rules that well, especially if they’re not exactly from America either. That was a dick move, Zero.”

“Seriously, if I were Zero, I would’ve made that much more fair. I would be a gentleman before a game master. I mean, I have a lot of gentlepoints after all.” Ace grins proudly.

“What are gentlepoints?”

“How could you not know what gentlepoints are? That’s heresy of the highest order!”

“Whatever floats your boat, Captain Weirdo.” Kat sighs and goes to input the answer on the keypad. On the other side of the room, a door clicks. Ace runs over and throws the door open.

“No way…” He can’t help but be shocked. In front of him is a coffin. 

Kat runs over and is equally as dumbfounded. “Is that…? Holy shit…  _ Beyond the forest of knowledge… _ ”

“ _ Beneath the navel of the Gigantic… _ ” Ace finishes. “Well, I’m not opening it.”

“What?”

“All-ice was a priestess, right? She’s less likely to attack a female.” Ace says calmly.

“The hell kind of logic is that?!”

“My logic. Plus, I am a proper gentleman, so ladies first.”

Kat rolls her eyes, “Gentleman my ass.” She reaches for the lid and slowly opens the lid.

Ace instinctively flinches, expecting Kat to scream. But there’s no response. “K-Kat…?” He nervously turns back to Kat.

“It’s… empty.” She sighs in what Ace could assume to be relief. “Well, not quite empty. There’s a root of some sort here. And two keys.”

Ace slowly makes his way over to the coffin, and, just like Kat said, All-ice was absent from its contents. But the root isn’t like anything he had ever seen. He looks around the room then tries to stuff the whole thing into his pocket with very little luck.

“What the hell are you doing?” Kat crosses her arms.

“What? I thought it might be useful.” Ace turns to face her.

“You have a knife. Cut off part of it. Don’t take the whole damn thing.”

“Why don’t you carry the other part?”

“I don’t have pockets, you idiot.”

“I’m sure you can–”

Kat glares at him. “Hell. Fucking. No.”

“I was only kidding.” Ace smiles as innocently as he can. Before Kat can say anything, he cuts off about one-fourth of the root off and puts it into his pocket.

“Yeah, sure… I’m not believing that for a second.” Kat pushes past him and grabs the two keys inside. One of them has a 【0】 carved onto it. The other has the symbol for Neptune on it. Kat wastes no time and uses the key with the 【0】 on the door. The door unlocks and both of them run out of the room and to the entrance of the library. Ace uses the key he had found in the encyclopedia earlier on the entrance. They both rush out of the library and off towards the direction of the Neptune door.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was easily my favorite chapter to write. Feels, and the reference to the "Who's on First" sketch. If you haven't heard it, what are you doing with your life?


	5. Hostia

_ “It’s not often you get to hear more about the participants. And that moment they shared… it almost makes me want to shed a tear.” _

_ “That brooch belonged to my wife… she left it to Gentarou after she passed away. He would never give it away to anyone… but the fact that he did…” _

_ “It seems thing are starting to heat up between those two.” _

_ “I cannot believe you just said that, Zero. I thought you had more dignity than that.” _

_ “Sorry, but was an opportunity I couldn’t have possibly passed up.” _

§

It didn’t take long for them to find the Neptune door. They quickly pass through it and race down the hall. At the end they find themselves before a massive metal door.

“【Incinerator】?” Kat looks up and reads the sign above the door.

“I don’t see any other paths we could take so looks like this is our only option. Shall we?” Ace walks over to a lever beside the door and place his hand on it. Kat gives him a small nod and he pulls it. 

The door slowly rises, almost painfully so, but the moment they are able to pass under it, they both run in. They take a whole two steps in before they both stop.

“You’ve got to be kidding me... another number 【9】 door?!” Kat swears under her breath easily the longest line of curse words Ace had ever heard in his whole life.

“Are you done?” He asks with a smirk.

“No. But we don’t have time for me to keep going.” Kat recomposes herself.

Ace gives her a small nod then walks over to the number 【9】 door opposite them. Just like the previous doors, a RED sat to its left. Ace reaches to verify when Kat grabs his arm.

“Wait. It could be a trap.” She’s trying her best not to panic. “Do you remember anything about this part of the game?”

“I– shit… I don’t.” Ace bites his lip. “Dammit…”

“Don’t worry about it. Let’s just head back–”

Kat isn’t able to finish. An alarm blares, cutting off whatever she was about to say. The door that they used to enter slowly closes, trapping them.

 

_ Warning.  _

_ Warning.  _

_ Emergency incineration command has been acknowledged. Automatic incineration will take place in… 18 minutes. Please evacuate the incinerator immediately.  _

_ Repeat.  _

_ Emergency incineration command has been acknowledged. Automatic incineration will take place in… 18 minutes. Please evacuate the incinerator immediately. _

 

“What the fuck?!” Kat’s voice begins to shake with panic and terror. “Why the fuck is th-there even an emergency incineration c-command in the first place?!”

Ace slams his hand on the scanner panel of the RED, but it yields no response. He tries again and again, but the results remain the same.

Kat begins to frantically pound at the door, screaming, “Please let us out! Help us! Please help us!!!”

Ace gives up on trying to get the RED to work and tries to force the door open, even throwing all his weight against it. But, like before, got him nowhere. It isn’t long before he gives in, his shoulder searing in pain from his futile attempts to put a dent in the number 【9】 door. He slumps to the floor in defeat. Kat soon gives up her attempts to cry for help, her voice too weak to continue yelling. She slumps down next to him, her knuckles bloody from her assault on the door.

“We’re going to die here, aren’t we?” Ace could barely hear her speak.

 

_ Automatic incineration will take place in… 15 minutes. _

 

“Heh… I’m sorry… I couldn’t even keep my promise for an hour…”

“Don’t worry about it, Quincy, Ace, Gentarou, whatever… it is the thought that–” Kat once again is interrupted. This time, at the center of the room, something rises up from the floor. The closest thing that it could be compared to is a computer. “What the hell is with this place and interrupting me?!”

Ace stands up and runs over to the machine in the center. He scans over what appears to be the keyboard. “What the hell…? Why are there two F keys?” He taps the keyboard and the screen flickers to life. “It’s a goddamned Rubik’s Cube.”

Right at that time, Kat comes up behind him. “What the hell…?”

Ace pays her no mind and fiddles with a joystick in front of the monitor. “So that changes my view. Those keys are my controls. And it looks like Zero gave me a white cross to start…”

“Quincy!” Kat yells to the best of her ability. “Care to explain?!”

“This puzzle, it’s a Rubik’s Cube. Luckily for us, I happen to know how to solve it… kind of.” Ace gives her the best reassuring smile he can.

 

_ Automatic incineration will take place in… 10 minutes. _

 

“Well, then what are you waiting for?! Solve it!”

“Yes ma'am.” Ace starts plugging in the algorithms he could recall.

“Don’t call me ma’am.” Kat crosses her arms.

Ace doesn’t even look back at her. “Yes sir.”

“I walked into that one, didn’t I?”

“Yes, you did.” Ace keeps frantically typing the algorithm.

 

_ Automatic incineration will take place in… 5 minutes. _

 

Kat begins to bounce her leg nervously. “Hurry up!”

“What do you think I’m doing?! I haven’t solved one of these things in ages!”

_ Automatic incineration will take place in… 90 seconds. _

 

“Gentarou…?”

“Don’t distract me! I’m almost done!”

 

_ Automatic incineration will take place in… 30 seconds. _

 

“Ace?!”

“Done!” Ace slams the enter key.

The screen reads: “Recognition Device Activated.”

Ace grabs Kat’s hand and they sprint for the door.

 

_ Automatic incineration will take place in… 10 _

_ 9… _

_ 8… _

_ 7… _

_ 6… _

_ 5… _

_ 4… _

 

He slams his hand on the panel.

 

_ 3… _

 

Kat follows closely.

 

_ 2… _

 

Ace waves Nine’s bracelet over the panel. Kat grabs the lever and pulls.

 

_ 1… _

 

_ Automatic incineration disengaged. _

 

The door opens and they throw themselves through it. They’re greeted by an all too familiar sound from their wrists. 81 seconds. However, the DEAD is right nearby. Ace verifies first, then scans Nine’s bracelet, and Kat verifies just after. They were free… almost. The locks on their bracelets still remain engaged. A lone spiral stairwell stood before them. Seeing no other option, the two of them begin the long trek up the stairs as fast as they could.

At some point during their run, Kat speaks up, “How’d you do that? Solve the puzzle, I mean.”

“I had… a lot of spare time after school…” He’s barely able to answer through his desperate gasps for breath.

“More like you had no friends.”

“I’d retort, but I can’t breathe.” Ace stops to catch his breath for a second before going back to running up the stairs.

The rest of the trek up neither say another word, the only thing breaking the silence is their heavy breathing.

Finally, they reach the top. Kat is the first and throws the doors open. She’s greeted by frigid November air. She shivers and tries to arm herself up. Ace, on the other hand stretches and takes a giant breath.

“Man, fresh air’s never felt so nice!” He speaks a bit louder than he would have liked, but he didn’t care.

“Mmhmm… you’re right.” She turns as a gentle gust of wind blows through.

“Can’t believe we made it…” Ace stares off into the distance.

“Yeah…” Kat walks over to him and goes to rest her head on his shoulder again. “The breeze feels so good.”

“Yeah, it does.” He smiles.

“I wonder what lies ahead? We won… so, now what?”

“We’re probably going to be greeted by Zero himself soon. But if you want philosophy, then the future is always uncertain, fate–”

Kat cuts him off. “Ah haha, no. Don’t ruin this moment. Just shut up and enjoy it.”

“Heh, that sounds like a perfect idea.”

They remain like that for what feels like an eternity. Though they didn’t know what was ahead, they felt ready for whatever awaited them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you guys appriciate the fact that I taught myself how to solve a Rubik's cube just for this chapter. Because I did. I needed to know if someone who had a faint idea how to solve one could solve it under 18 minutes. And yes, it is very possible. I could be wrong, but I think that in the novel version of 999, the final puzzle wasn't sudoku but a Rubik's Cube. Well anyway. I hope you guys enjoyed it and caught every last reference. But here's a question for all of you: who do you think Kat/Four is? (The actual answer might get debunked by canon, but who cares!)
> 
> Edit 7/3/16: Yeah Zero Time Dilemma debunked my theory but hey, everyone loves a good AU. But I'll say this: the brooch part doesn't have to actually be in it. Oh well. Kat still exists and I won't let 45 pages of writing go to waste. I worked hard on it so I'm proud of it and that's what counts, right? Oh who am I kidding, I'm sad that the way it was debunked was… that way but then again I have yet to properly finish ZTD.

**Author's Note:**

> This also happens to be my submission to the Thank You Zero Escape project. I thought I'd post it here for all your enjoyment in case you don't get the link to the final pdf or anything.


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